Got up at 8.00am and went out onto the balcony. The temperature was not too cold but there was still a brisk Force 5 wind blowing, and when I leant over the balcony and looked towards the bow, I could see the horizon rising and falling in that hypnotic way. Waves were still not cresting, but the great rolling swell was still very much with us.
After getting washed and dressed and scraping my messy hair back into a short ponytail (one of the reasons I take wigs on holiday to wear during the evenings!) we made our way up one deck to the self-service buffet, and I enjoyed some cured meats and smoked salmon and a selection of fresh melon and pineapple slices, washed down with coffee and orange juice.
As we left The View, we greeted people we recognised and smiled at those we didn’t. One of the many things we like about smaller vessel cruising is that it’s easy to make friends and form little ‘coteries’ and quiz teams. On some of these massive ships with 3000+ passengers, you’re lucky if you come across the same people twice!
Returning to 7055 and perusing the Daily Times activities programme, we saw that there was a “Baggo” competition at 9.30am and we thought it might be fun to have a go. Teams of two have four bean bags between them, and you have to take it in turns to toss your bean bag towards an angled board that has a hole in it. If your bag lands on (and stays on!) the board, you get one point, but if you manage to get your bag into the hole, then that is worth three points.
As it was still quite difficult to walk normally, the games host placed a couple of chairs at the start line, so you could hold onto the chair with one hand and throw your bean bag with the other.
Trevor and I were the first team called up, to play against another couple. I didn’t toss my first bean bag hard enough for it to land on the board, but when my turn came around again, I managed to get my second bag squarely into the hole. So Trevor and I won the first round! 😊
The game progressed with the usual good-humoured banter and heckling, a cheer going up each time someone put their bean bag into the hole. When our turn came around again, we were drawn to play another couple of guys who were each called Dennis. As each of us threw our bags, all eight bags landed on the board gaining each team four points each, so we needed a tie-breaker.
We were each given one bag to throw – Dennis’s bag landed neatly on the board and so did Trevor’s. The other Dennis, however, missed the board, so all I had to do was get my beanbag onto the board for us to be through to the next round. I tossed my beanbag which landed on the edge of the board and teetered there precariously before the ever-present ship’s motion caused it to fall off again. It was another draw!
This time, we each had to throw one beanbag and whoever’s bag landed closest to the hole would be deemed the winner of that round. The victory belonged to the Dennises on this occasion! 😊
Trevor and I stayed to see the rest of the game, and it ended up where the two Dennises won the final. So it had taken the champions to knock Trevor and me out! 😊
As we left the Ocean Bar we noticed that the restaurant and bar team were setting up tasting stalls for a Food and Beverage fair that was due to start at 10.30am. As it was now twenty-past, we decided to hang around and taste some of the spirits and liqueurs. I had a Ballantine’s whisky followed by a craft vodka; you really did only get a taste; there was probably less than 10ml in each glass. Looking at the bottles for sale, I decided to go for the Adnam’s ‘Trio of Whisky ‘which was a boxed set of 3 x 300ml bottles of Adnam’s whisky; one of them a rye, one a single malt and one a triple malt. I had heard of Adnam’s Ghost Ale before (a refreshing beer) but I hadn’t known that they did whisky as well.
I put my order in for the whiskies and was advised they’d be delivered to our stateroom the night before we disembarked.
Walking towards the Morning Light pub we saw that we were too late for the morning quiz (they were already up to question 4). We decided to take a seat anyway and enjoy a drink while playing the quiz for fun. It brought us nicely up to half-past eleven, and time to have another go at the Carpet Bowls, when we’d come so close to winning yesterday. 😊
Trevor and I were not drawn in the same team this time; my team-mate was a very pleasant Dutch man called Jakob. He’d never played carpet bowls before although he said there was a similar game they played in the Netherlands. The ship’s motion made it quite difficult to get yourself into position and bend to send your ball up, so everyone’s balls were going in all directions and it was a matter of good luck rather than good play if you got your ball closest to the jack. Jakob and I were knocked out straight away, as was the case with Trevor and his team mate when it was their turn.
We stayed to see the final before going up to The View for some lunch. I enjoyed a tasty plate of chili con carne with rice, washed down with a glass of chilled cava and some water, to try to stay hydrated in this air-conditioned environment.
Afterwards, we took a stroll around the promenade deck in the bracing air, revelling in the sights, sounds and smells of the ocean – there’s nothing else like it.
After a few laps, we returned to 7055 where I retrieved my laptop, and we went up to the poolside bar where I enjoyed another drink while doing some of this blog. The Borealis was still dancing a merry dance on the ocean waves so the pool and hot tubs were still empty and closed off. Trevor went off to the Neptune Lounge to listen to a talk about “Thomas Paine and the Countdown to Independence” and I said I’d join him later. In any case, it was pleasant just sitting there, people watching and typing. 😊
When I got a warning from my laptop that the battery was down to 15%, I finished the paragraph I was working on, then took the laptop back to our stateroom to charge. Then I hotfooted it down to the Neptune Lounge and found Trevor, and I watched/listened to the end of the presentation with him.
We remained in the lounge for the next fascinating talk from the astro-physicist Jim Teslow. This was entitled “The Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence” and discussed the possibility of life on other planets. It was a really interesting presentation with plenty of food for thought.
Back in our stateroom we pottered around for a while before deciding to have a power nap to make up for our poor night’s sleep last night. We settled down around 4.30pm, but it was impossible to get to sleep as the heavy swell still caused a lot of pitching and rolling, with lots of creaking, clattering and squeaking in our cabin. In addition, we were interrupted with the arrival of the canapé man, so we paused to enjoy these tasty snacks which whet my appetite for dinner.
I gave up trying to have a nap and read for a while instead, before getting ready for dinner at 6.15pm. It took twice as long as usual because many things had to be done one handed, as I carefully moved around the cabin trying not to bump into things or fall over.
Tonight’s dress code was smart-casual; I tend to err on the side of smart rather than casual, although others certainly don’t seem to care what the dress code is. I wore a pair of formal black trousers with a sequinned panel down the outside of the leg, and a one-shouldered black top with diamante on the bodice. I teamed the outfit with strappy silver sandals and was then ready to go.
One of the Alans was missing from our table tonight, and his wife Lesley told us he wasn’t feeling well. We didn’t know whether it was seasickness or something else and didn’t feel it prudent to ask.
Dinner was delicious as usual. I started with some sort of beef in a puff pastry case, followed by fresh garden and tomato salad with a lovely aromatic basil dressing. My main course was hand-made cod and salmon fishcake with tartare sauce, accompanied by crushed potatoes, garden peas and sweetcorn. It was all washed down with water and rosé wine, and followed with the cheeseboard, coffee and a glass of ruby port.
After we all left the table and went our separate ways (after we asked Lesley to pass on our best wish to Alan), Trevor and I went along to the Neptune Lounge to bag a good seat for the show, but also because they now do the pre-show dancing, complete with dance hosts, the way they used to do back in the pre-pandemic days. We could see that a Rumba One was in progress, so we took to the rocky dance floor and joined in. However, we’d only arrived in time for the last few bars of the dance, and because it was quite precarious trying to do our steps as the dance floor tilted, straightened, then tilted again, the dance hosts said that for safety reasons they’d call off the rest of the dancing and just play music instead.
As people left the Neptune Lounge to go to their second-sitting dinner, Trevor and I were able to move into a front-row seat. A barmaid came along and we each ordered a drink to enjoy during the show.
Tonight’s performance featured a multi-talented musician called Davie Howes. He played the piano, trumpet, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet and even improvised with a shower hose! He was an excellent musician and played in an upbeat, enthusiastic style, accompanied by the excellent ship’s orchestra led by musical director Nelson. In one instance, Nelson took the mic for his own solo rendition, then they both played a fantastic jazz duet. What a great performance; we really enjoyed it a lot and I was sorry when it was over.
This took us up to 10.00pm in time for the evening trivia quiz. Lesley had already told us at dinner it was unlikely that they’d be able to join us tonight, so Trevor and I formed a team of two, sitting on bar stools at the bar in the Morning Light.
We scored 14/15, but it was still not enough to win – two teams had scored full marks so it went to the tiebreaker. Even if we had scored 15, we wouldn’t have won, as our guess at the tiebreaker was way out. Still, it was the highest score we’d achieved so far, so maybe our turn to win would come tomorrow night! 😊
We ended the evening as we usually do, by going up to the Observatory to watch the two guitar-playing guys called “Stattus” (yes, it is spelled with two t’s). They were very good as usual, but once again the Observatory was less than half full. There don’t seem to be very many night owls on this cruise at all.
It was therefore quite early (for us!) when we left the Observatory after only having one drink (!!) We were back in our cabin and in bed by 11.30pm. Despite the Captain having told us in his mid-day navigational announcement that the Atlantic would become calmer, the ship’s weather information described the sea state as “rough to very rough” with a swell of 4.8 metres. I certainly hoped that we would sleep better tonight.